Midwest Grow Kits spawn bags and kit review

Hey guys. I thought I would share some results on my recent mushroom grow project. I attempted this last year on my own and failed. I spent a lot of time researching on the shroomery forums and all I grew was mold. It got so overwhelming with so much info and methods, so this year I broke down and bought a kit and spawn bags from Midwest Grow kits. I know most people tell me to do it myself and it's hard to get support in other forums. So I wanted to post something here.

I bought the kit about 6 weeks ago and ordered my spores from premiumspores.com. In my first grow project, I tried the glove box method to inoculate my jars. Midwestgrowkits strongly recommends using the oven door method and since I ended up with moldy last time, I decided to inoculate using their preferred method. I was nervous to try the oven door method because it isn't recommend anymore. All of my jars completely colonized after 3 weeks without a single sign of mold.
The directions that came with the kit were really easy to follow and made the whole process of setting up the kit simple. The kit I ordered came with a heating pad. Again, I was nervous to use it because everything I had read in the past said to not use an outside heating source, but I wanted to follow their directions completely. I put the heating underneath my tub and the temperature inside the tub did get a little too high, so I ended up putting a towel in between the tub and heating pad. That did the trick!
Currently, I am still picking mushrooms everyday and am on my 3rd flush. Honestly, I have more mushrooms than I know what to do with.
Overall, I'm really happy with the kit and the support I received.

Thanks for sharing, mushroom growing in general hasn't changed much. There are many different methods that can work, its true! As far as heating your kit, well if you grow at room temp (68-72 degrees) your jars will take alot longer than if you grow at 78-80 degrees. I am a firm believer in that. I've grown for years and you dont want the jars or spawn bags to dry up before they finish colonizing. Its winter in much of the country and your gonna need to crank up your heat or use some type of heating system this time of year.

How did the spawn bags turn out? I am considering ordering a set and taking the lazy route this time. I could do it myself but with all my projects going on who has the time.. lol

Good to know! Thanks!

I bought their 5 grain since I'd never seen that mix before! So far so good! I think they are almost done! I'm just debating on either fruiting them by themselves in my kit or trying something a little more adventurous like 50/50 bulk coir method

I bought the same kit I tried fruiting them in the chamber instead of leaving them in the bag. I don't know if its working I waited 20 days or so and saw no signs of growth so I dunked them and rolled them in verm. Its been only 3 days since then so we'll see what happens. I've never tried to grow mushrooms before so if anything I know what not to do for next time. Anyway keep us posted on how the grow turns out.

btw it took forever to innoculate the spawn bags. Pretty close to the 40 days like the instructions say

I got 4, 5# bags from them and everyone contamed on me!! I have been growing for a few years, do all my own agar, and I currently have 3 isolates from 3 different varities. I was pissed the bags from them did this. They were doing great right untill the last little corner of the bags. I know it was not my method because I nocd 14 qt. jars at the same time, not a single contam, I bought some bags and I do the rest now, to hell with them, wouldnt even send me a message back, I sent pics, a list of how i nocd them everything, they ignored me as I thought, expensive lesson!!

BigEasyBud said:

btw it took forever to innoculate the spawn bags. Pretty close to the 40 days like the instructions say

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that is nuts, shake the bags. I never had a bag take more than 8 or 9 days, usually less.

I ordered a kit from them when i first started growing. It was the tub in tub ic. The larger tub had cracks in it and would not hold water. They sent me some bags in its replacement cuz i figured i could use a cardboard box on top of the fridge as an ic for way less. Their bags aren't bad. The only thing i didn't like about em was that they are advertised as 3lb's of grain but weigh more like 2lb's when they arrived.

Hey,
So I ordered a set of 5-grain spawn bags from Midwest Grow Kits and ended up buying their casing mix too. My bags colonized in about 25 days or so. I basically dumped the casing mix in a 10 gallon tote and broke up only one of the coloized bags and I just got my first flush!! Holy crap I am still in shock on how much I grew in one flush from one bag!! Here is some pics of my success!!! This is my first time trying any type of bulk casing and I was shocked on how easy it was, granted I cheated by ordering everything pre-made, but hey, it was worth it.

After 7 days:




After 12 days!! Yesterday's harvest!!!!!! YIPEEEE Some delicious Portabello's!!

Happy travels man! Look like you'll enjoy that a bunch! Plus you got several more flushes coming!

Nicest flush I've seen posted here, congrads.

Where did you find the bulk casing mix? I was looking for it on their website but couldn't find it. Do youhappen to have the link? I want to try this next time around.

Wow.. I got like almost 4 flushes from that tub! crazy. I already ordered more casing and I'm doing it with a bigger tub this time! Here is the link:

http://www.midwestgrowkits.com/spawn-bags.html

Wait a minute, I was under the impression that you did not case. Are you talking about substrate?

canndo said:

Wait a minute, I was under the impression that you did not case. Are you talking about substrate?

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on the whole casing deal, wouldn't it be easier to just put into fruiting conditions when the myc has just barely stared peeking through, thus leaving a thin layer of sub on top for casing, rather than colonize the full sub, then case, then initiate pinning when the myc starts peeking through

..sorry to diffract from the thread

Mr.Marijuana420 said:

on the whole casing deal, wouldn't it be easier to just put into fruiting conditions when the myc has just barely stared peeking through, thus leaving a thin layer of sub on top for casing, rather than colonize the full sub, then case, then initiate pinning when the myc starts peeking through

..sorry to diffract from the thread

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I am going to get some flack from folks here.


When you are using high nutrient substrate you are inviting contamination, if that substrate is not fully colonized, that risk rises. Once full colonization is complete it begins to use all of the moisture in the substrate and there is not much you can do to replenish it - save "dunking". You finally get a sort of impervious waterproof cover of mycelium (called overlay) and you do not provide the tiny micro environment needed to form even pinsets. Another layer of material that has verry little nutrient invites the mycelium up to explore for more while you can continue to keep THAT layer in a state of high moisture. Risk of contamination is reduced, you signal the mushroom that it is running out of nutrient and you provide a micro environment, along wth mircrorganisms that are conducive to fruiting as well.

Others will argue that this layer is not necessary, and with this mushroom it is not, however, my experiments have shown over and over that incidence of contamination is lower, control of what contamination occurs is easier and yields are higher.

The organism gives most of it's yield in the first three flushes - about 70 to 80 percent. If you grow without proper casing, you will usually need more flushes in order to get to that level, and the longer you keep growing the more you risk contamination. Contamination is invited most often through changing ph, the more acids that the mycelium produces (in order to digest it's nutrient base) the more conducive to other contaminations the substrate gets. It is far easier to adjust the casing layer to a base PH in order to compensate because the mycelim will come from a contaminant free and happily colonized substrate and explore in rhyzomorphic strands, a substrate that ordinarily will not be so condusive to wholesale colonization.

Hey guys,

So I wanted to post an update since I started this thread a few months ago. I grew all my Jars and really had fun with those. I decided to attempt a Bulk casing grow. I'm still too nervous to attempt this from scratch so this time I ordered the Deluxe Spawn Bag kit also from Midwest Grow Kits which comes with two spawn bags and a 30 Quart container with aquarium heater setup where you can control the temp using that. My house is really cold so I really needed a way to keep the temps up. I also ordered a 5 pound bag of the Select casing mix from them too. I see that someone else here used it and I really hope mine turns out that way!! Looks amazing!!! I had one more spore syringe left so perfect amount for 2 of the spawn bags.

So what I am doing is fruiting one of the spawn bags in the bag, I just cut the top off the bag and am misting the inside to keep it moist. So far so good.. Here are a few pics of my progress!

This is my fruit in the bag one. Just going on week 5 and seeing a ton of small mushies!!



The other spawn bag I used for the 30 Quart container and here is what I did. I really just followed their directions.
I took about 3/4 of the casing mix bag and spread it out in the tub, then I broke up my one spawn bag and mixed it up with the casing. Then I took the remaining 1/4 of the bag and spread it evenly on top. About 5 days later I started to see the white mycellium poking through!! Now I'm only 9 days in and I already have some growing!! with tons of little pins all over!!

I was wondering if I should spread some dry vermiculite on top of the casing and then mist it to keep it moist, kinda like the Dunk and Roll that we do with the PF Jars? I'm tempted to try it!
Here is a quick pic from my phone of my 9th day after casing!




Anyways, I'll visit back in another week and post my first full flush!! Can't wait!!!

I know this board is not really for Mushies, but I tried posting at shroomery and other big mushroom boards and everyone yells at me saying I should start from scratch and not buy kits and then my thread gets lost. I just want to say I will probably attempt it all myself next time but this really was a great way to learn and I really only spent like $20 more ordering from Midwest Grow Kits then I would if I went out and bought all this stuff myself. Which I cant even find alot of this stuff in the winter where I live.

Cheers!

It sounds like a good way to make growing easier. I have made my own before and its time consuming and hard. I might try the company you tried to see if it helps.

I have no problem with some of the kits, every one of them will work, and you won't need a pressure cooker.

BUT. imagine going into one of the pot growing sections here and talking about a pot growing kit you just got with pots and dirt and a watering can and some cheap lights. same sort of thing.

Yeah, people frown upon prefabricated kits, but my place is prone to contamination, even when i pressure cook and use a glove box, so buying grains sterilized elsewhere might work well for me. I hope! =D